The fight was between Ibrahim Jaafari, from Da’wa, who’s been PM since early last year and Abdul al-Mahdi from the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution. The Kurdish and Sunni factions had opposed Jaafari, who until a few days ago was insisting that he wasn’t going anywhere. Needlenose was saying that Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani had intervened and told Jaafari to step aside. (Nice to know the Shi’ite theocrats rule in the end, huh?)
Anyway, The deadlock is finally broken. The Sunnis have decided to compromise and settle for Ibrahim Jaafari’s right-hand man, Jawad al-Maliki from the Da’wa party as the new prime minister. They re-elected Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani as President and the worst case seems it may have been averted – for now…
